By Lei Lydle Founder and Editor Last Updated: 3/29/2004

Today, couples are waiting a bit longer to marry and quite often they prefer to pay for the majority of the wedding expenses themselves. In addition, with the overall costs of throwing a wedding increasing each year, many families may be looking for different ways to share in the costs of the wedding.

Following is a list of socially accepted options for splitting the wedding expenses a bit differently than the traditional breakdown.

		The Bride and Groom could pay for the entire wedding themselves.
		The expenses could be split between the two families.
		Each side of the family can pay for their own guests.
		The expenses could be divided by 3 and split among the bride's family, the groom's family and the couple.
		The Groom's family could pay for the entire wedding. (This is normal when the bride's parents are deceased or its the bride's second marriage.)
		The Bride's family could pay for the entire wedding.

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Posted by: Lyndsey from Atlanta, GA on 3/29/2004

I can honestly say that being faced with having to pay for your own wedding can certainly bring an additional stress to the table when planning for your special day. As it is "tradition" for the parents of the bride to fork out this lavish expense, it is also realistic to acknowledge the fact that times have certainly changed in this respect. As we are setting our budget now, we do realize that paying for this event will be extremely difficult, but at the same time presents the opportunity to have total freedom to make our wedding exactly how we have always envisioned it. Wedding Date: May '2005